Opinion

To say that I am zealous about fall is an understatement. I love Starbucks Pumpkin Spice lattes and eagerly await its arrival every year, the weather is perfect, the leaves changing colors, apple cider … need I say more? But mostly, fall is my favorite season because it has way of making me feel nostalgic.

The same organization that oversees the (public) education of your children wrote the following, which would be sort of funny were it not such a serious subject:

“The candidate who wishes to be elected to the school council as a minority representative on the school council must be the minority. However, if a person declares himself/herself a minority, he or she should be considered so for the purpose of fulfilling the requirements of minority council member.”

My daughter has been playing softball since she was 4 years old in the county recreation league. She has been a good ballplayer and had several coaches. For the past year, she has played on a travel team, but since she turned 9, had to move off the travel team and back into the county recreation league.

Robin Williams was an amazingly talented actor and comedian. He was a devoted philanthropist who dedicated time, talent and funds to help individuals and groups enjoy a better quality of life. Williams also suffered from depression. He died August 11, an apparent suicide.

About six million men in the United States experience a depressive disorder. About 65 percent of the men with depression will go undiagnosed and without treatment. About 97 percent of those reporting depression also report that their work, home life and relationships suffer as a result of depression.

Used to be you could scan and print a page at the library and pay for it in less than 30 seconds. Today, it takes about 5 minutes because the alleged better is so complicated one needs a 4.5 minute training course to use it.

Takes about 20 steps just to print a page. It used to be you put paper in scanner/printer, close lid, put money in slot, hit ‘scan’, don’t forget original. Five steps, easy enough for this autistic brain to handle.

Perhaps I’m a little late tossing in my two cents about Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling and his racist remarks. I would have thought by now that this storm might pass.

It hasn’t.

In a nutshell, the billionaire real estate investor told a woman, V. Stiviano, not to bring black people to his games. Apparently, he was in a flirtatious relationship, or attempting to be in an amorous relationship, with Stiviano, who is part African-American.

For those keeping up with world news, you might have noticed this interesting new “blogger law” passed in Russia.

The law dictates that any blogger with more than 3,000 readers must register with Russia’s media oversight agency.

According to Reporters Without Borders, the bloggers will be responsible for fact-checking any information they post and removing any inaccurate comments, and they are prohibited from harming the reputation of a person or group or using their platform to “hide or falsify information of general interest.”

According to the most recent statistics from the National Foster Care Coalition, nearly 400,000 children are currently in foster care, with almost 7,000 of those in Kentucky.

Out of this number, many will eventually be reunified with their family members once it is seemed safe to do so (51 percent in 2012), while others will wait and age out of the system, having never had the blessing of being the member of a loving family.

Throughout my career as a former education reporter, I’ve heard many buzz words. The latest and most popular, in my opinion, seem to be “21st Century school” and “college and career readiness.”

These phrases most likely have little significance for people who don’t work in the education field. Without getting into the technicalities, these phrases really mean a school that is up-to-date in methods of preparing students for a career and/or college path.

Take a look at your bills. What do you pay for food, housing, clothing, health care, utilities and transportation? How much would it take for your family to just get by? Could you make it on $15,000 a year? $21,000? What would your family have to do without to make ends meet?